Landscape Archaeology

ANTHRO 1149 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

In this course, students will learn what landscapes are and how to study them archaeologically. Landscape archaeology allows us to transit from more site-centered views to a more integrated approach. This helps us to comprehend archaeological sites in their much wider, rich and complex spatial context, their relationship with other sites, as well as with how are they are position within the physical and mythical geography. Rather than a particular time period, the course conceives landscapes as palimpsests and, thus, will analyze them throughout different periods, from paleolithic times, the Neolithic, Middle Ages, up to the present. Rather than a particular region or area, we will study and compare case studies from Europe, Africa, Central and East Asia, the Americas and the Pacific amongst others. Moreover, we will pay special attention to how funerary architecture, settlements, hunting camps, mines, battlefields, road systems, and particular worldviews were part and were used by humans to culturally construct their landscapes. In addition to explaining the theoretical bases and landscape conceptions, the course will pay special attention to the plethora of methodologies used in landscape archaeology, including archaeometry, toponymy, historical cartography, GIS analysis and remote sensing. Readings concerning landscape theory, key case studies and methodologies will be provided, and, for their final assignment, the students will have to select their own case study in order to create a landscape archaeology project/study.